The loss of Arctic summer sea ice and the rapid warming of the Far North are altering the jet stream over North America, Europe, and Russia. As Jennifer Francis writes, scientists are now just beginning to understand how these shifts may be increasing the likelihood of extreme weather.READ THE e360 REPORT

vegetation, as well as atmospheric wind flow patterns, researchers from the University of Leeds and the NERC Center for Ecology & Hydrology found that across 60 percent of the Amazon and Congo rainforests, air passing over extensive forest areas produces twice as much rain as air passing over areas with little vegetation. According to their findings, published in the journal Nature, this effect in some cases can increase rainfall thousands of miles away. After combining these findings with projected deforestation rates and current trends, the researchers calculated that tropical forest loss could reduce rainfall across the Amazon basin during the wet season by 12 percent by 2050, and 21 percent during the dry season. “We found that the Amazon and Congo forests maintain rainfall over the periphery of the forest basins — regions where large numbers of people live and rely on rainfall for their livelihoods,” said Dominick Spracklen, a researcher at the University of Leeds and lead author of the study.